Biography of Charles L. Flint : history of Flint Public Library

Biography

of

Charles L. Flint

History

of

Flint Public Library

Middleton, Massachusetts

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2014

https://archive.org/details/biographyofcharlOOsanb

FLINT PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 2126 00137 483

Biography of Charles L. Flint

Brief History

of the

Flint Public Library

Town of Middleton
Massachusetts

Board of Trustees
William Sanborn, Chairman
Elmer 0. Campbell, Jr., Clerk

and

Paul Wake
Carl Jones

William T. Martin
Thomas J. Oliver

CHARLES L. FLINT (1824-1889)

Charles L. Flint was born in South Middleton on May 8,
1824. He entered Phillips Academy in Andover in 1841 and
later worked his way through Harvard College, graduating
in 1849. After teaching a short term he spent two years at
Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the New York State
Bar and began practice in New York City. In 1857 he married
Ellen E. Leland of Grafton, Massachusetts and had two sons
and a daughter.

While in college, he won a prize offered by the Essex
Agricultural Society for an essay on Indian corn, which was
published in the 1849 Transactions of the Society. This essay
and other agricultural writings attracted state-wide attention
and resulted in his appointment as the first secretary of the
Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. He took office in 1853
and remained secretary of the Board for twenty-seven years,
during which time his annual reports contain a full and
accurate record of the agriculture of this state.

Mr. Flint was deeply interested in practical education.
He took a conspicuous part in the founding of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He was a member of the Boston
School Committee and helped in the establishment of High
Schools. He was a founder of Massachusetts Agricutural
College (chartered in 1862), (now called University of Massa-
chusetts) and served as secretary of the Board of Trustees
for twenty-two years. He lectured at the college on dairy
farming and upon retirement of President Clark, (1879) Mr.
Flint became president of the college, serving one year.

In addition to his extensive articles and reports for the
Board of Agriculture, he wrote several books on agriculture.
At the time of his death in 1889, he was president of the
Massachusetts Agricultural Club and was widely known as
an authority on farming. He died in Hillman, Georgia where
he had gone to regain his failing health. He is buried in
Grafton, Massachusetts.

In February 1879, Mr. Flint proposed a free public
library to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the incorp-
oration of the Town of Middleton. His offer of $1,000 and
400 books was readily accepted and six trustees were elected
for a term of three years to establish and maintain a free
public library. In 1889 under terms of Mr. Flint's will, the
town was left the sum of $10,000 to be expended by library
trustees for library purposes. The trustees were then able
to purchase a site and erect the present library building,
which was dedicated November 11, 1891 and appropriately
named after its chief benefactor.

THE FLINT PUBLIC LIBRARY

Very early in the history of Middleton social libraries
(so called) were organized by interested citizens. There is
evidence that at least two of these social libraries existed,
one as early as 1772 founded by Rev. Elias Smith and a later
one in 1838 founded by Dr. E. S. Phelps. There is also
material evidence in the form of a catalog of the establish-
ment of the Middleton Library Association on March 28, 1865.
There were fifty-five shareholders each paying $3 per share
and an assessment of $1.00 annually. Persons in arrears of
two annual assessments were to forfeit their shares to the
association. Other rules referred to the care and return of
books loaned. Fines were imposed for books overdue and all
books were to be returned one week prior to the annual
meeting of the association, held the first Wednesday in
January. By March 21, 1869, the date of the first catalog,
the association had 72 members and a library of 465 books.
The officers and directors of the association as listed in the
first catalog were:

President — William A. Phelps

Vice President — Milton J. Emerson

Secretary — O. L. Carleton

Librarian and Treasurer — Joseph A. Batchelder
Directors — William M. Peabody, William H. Leslie,
Daniel E. Graves and George F. French

Ten years later, 1879, the first catalog of the Flint Public
Library was published and following this ten supplements to
the catalog appeared covering the years 1883-1898. These
supplements contained lists of books added to the library but
contain no other historical data. The catalog was compiled
by Mrs. Samuel A. Fletcher and listed 2450 volumes. The
trustees for this first free public library were:

William A. Phelps

Joseph A. Batchelder

Ansel P. Tyler

Samuel A. Fletcher (librarian)

James Flint

Gilman A. Kimball
In February of 1879 Honorable Charles L. Flint, then
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, wrote
a letter to the Selectmen of Middleton suggesting that notice
be taken of the 150th anniversary of the incorporation of the
town by establishing a Public Town Library, free to all.
Mr. Flint offered $1,000 to help start such a library provided
the town would appropriate $400 for necessary expenses. At
the annual town meeting in March 1879 Mr. Flint's proposal
was accepted by unanimous vote and the thanks of the town
were tendered to him for his generous gift. It was voted:
"that the library established by the donation of Honorable
Charles L. Flint be called the Flint Public Library as a
memorial of our gratitude to him whom Middleton will ever
be proud to claim as one of her most distinguished sons."

In addition to his original gift Mr. Flint has contributed
more than 400 volumes to the library including a beautifully
bound set of his own reports and many other valuable books.
The Middleton Library Association presented to the town
its own collection of 910 volumes together with the furniture
of their library rooms and the unexpended balance in their
treasury amounting to $25.00. Other contributors of valuable
books and documents were: Charles O. Whitmore, Esq., of
Boston who gave Appleton's Cyclopedia; Secretary of the
Commonwealth for 75 volumes of public documents; Honor-
able J. J. H. Gregory for 21 volumes of useful miscellaneous
works; and to J. H. Devereaux, Esq., for a copy of the History
of Essex County.

In 1891, $10,000 was left to the town under the will of
Honorable Charles L. Flint for the purpose of erecting a
permanent building for the use of the Flint Public Library.
By vote of the town the estate formerly owned by the late
Ephriam Fuller was purchased for $3,500. The buildings
thereon were sold for $174, which sum was added to the
$500 already appropriated by the town for grading the lot.
The present library building was completed at a cost of
$9,980 which was just within the sum bequeathed by Mr. Flint
for a building. The beautiful stained glass window in the
trustees' room was designed by Donald McDonald of Boston
and presented to the town by Mrs. Joseph N. Smith of Lynn,
in memory of her father Mr. Jesse Fuller who was born in
Middleton, March 18, 1803, and died in New York, August 18,
1872. This window is a fine representation of the poem Abou
Ben Adem by Leigh Hunt. Mrs. Smith also presented an art
square for the trustees' room and curtains for this room and
the reading room. A record of the gifts is found in the Town
Eeport of 1900. The window in the reading room, also stained
glass, was presented by Mr. J. N. Smith in memory of his
wife, Caroline (Fuller) Smith. The clock was placed in the
tower through the generosity of Mr. George Fuller. The
bronze tablet placed in the recessed porchway of the building
bears the following inscription:

Flint Library
Erected from bequest of Charles L. Flint
Trustees

Joseph A. Batchelder Samuel A. Fletcher

James Flint Jesse W. Peabody

Ansel P. Tyler W. Morrill Peabody

Maintenance funds given by Benjamin F. Emerson
and Charles L. Flint
Architects Builders
Loring and Phipps Smith and Maney

1891

The building was formerly dedicated November 11, 1891,
and the following Saturday the library was opened for the
delivery of books. There have been but four librarians since
1879. Mr. Samuel A. Fletcher was librarian from 1879 to

1910; he also served on the Board of Trustees for 22 years.
His daughter, Lillian, served from 1910-1916 when another
daughter, Edith, served as librarian until 1932. The present
librarian, Sarah E. Carleton, was appointed in 1932 after the
death of Miss Edith Fletcher. Undoubtedly, the Fletcher
family contributed much to the success of the library over
a period of more than fifty years.

By the will of Benjamin F. Emerson who died in Boston,
April 5, 1887, the library received the interest of $10,000
after the decease of his mother, Sarah Wilkins Emerson, this
sum to be known as the B. F. Emerson Trust Fund. Benjamin
Emerson, the son of Stephen and Sarah Emerson, was born
in Middleton, December 21, 1837. He received his early
education here. Later he attended Oxford and Townsend
Academies in Vermont. For fifteen years he was superin-
tendent of a mining company in Copper Falls, Michigan.
While giving directions for the extinguishing of a forest fire
near the mining property he fell from a coal bridge and
fractured his spine. He lived seven months after the fall and
died at the Carney Hospital in Boston in 1887.

Thus through the generosity and foresight of these two
former citizens of Middleton the town possesses a fine library
building and a splendid collection of books. The wisdom of
the first trustees in securing land on Middleton Square to
erect the splendid brick building did much to beautify the
square. The spacious grounds around the building offer an
opportunity for further beautification by suitable memorials.

From the foregoing we see that Middleton has always
been interested in maintaining a library for its citizens. Since
1879 the library has been free to all residents of the town
and since 1891 the books have been housed in a separate
building, the present Flint Public Library. The library of
10,000 books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases and
other valuable references is an asset to the town. The build-
ing is open for the loan and return of books on Tuesdays
3-8 P.M., Fridays 6-9 P.M., and Saturdays 3-5 P.M. Besides
the stock room for book storage there are two reading rooms,
adequate desk space and the librarian's office on the lower

floor. Over the stock room is a balcony which is used for
special exhibits during the year. The building is equipped
with automatic oil heat and has satisfactory lighting. The
trustees' room is furnished with comfortable chairs and
special lamps where reading and study can be carried on in
quiet surroundings. The trustees invite the new citizen as
well as the older residents to make use of the facilities which
we are so fortunate to possess.

GEORGE E. GIFFORD

April 1952

FLINT LIBRARY TRUSTEES
1889 — 1952

Number of

Year Name Years

1889 Joseph A. Batchelder - - - 3

1889 Samuel A. Fletcher 22

1889 James Flint 5

1889 William A. Phelps 3

1889 Ansel P. Tyler - 10

1891 Jessie W. Peabody - 5

1893 Darius W. Case ------ 4

1893 Andrew W. Peabody ----- 3

1891 F. P. Merriam 10

1891 M. J. Emerson - 10

1891 M. E. Tyler 32

1895 H. Herbert Wilkins 4

1899 George F. Haskell 1

1899 Galen B. Howe 24

1899 Ralph G. Peabody 7

1899 A. G. Huntoon 2

1900 J. H. Curtis 2

1903 J. A. Atwood ------ 4

1908 G. E. Barnaby 33

1909 H. A. Young - 33

1910 Albert F. Henderson ----- 1

1911 Charles W. Hutchinson 20
1914 William R. Godfrey ----- 26

1930 Leon Soper 3

1931 Harley M. Tyler 15

1931 Roger F. Clapp ------ 9

1933 William H. Sanborn 19

1939 Austin C. Peabody 4

1940 J. W. Osborne - 4

1942 A. L. Jones ------ 7

1943 Paul Wake 9

1944 William T. Martin 8

1945 Marion E. Mitchell ----- 1

1946 Harold Y. Smith 6

1946 J. Philip Webber ----- 3

1949 Elmer 0. Campbell, Jr. 3

1949 Carl C. Jones ------ 3

1952 Thomas Oliver ------ 3